Everybody into the Pool: True Tales (Paperback)
I’ve been lurking around the Memoir section of Half Price Books lately, and discovering some really great new (new to me, anyway) books in the process. Given how much I love blogs, I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier that the memoir genre would be appealing to me. I mean, a memoir is like a really long blog! With continuity! And fewer emoticons!
Anyway, I picked up Beth Lisick’s Everybody into the Pool based solely on the cover and the David Eggers plug on the inside flap, and I am so, so glad I did. This collection of essays about her life (from growing up in suburbia to embodying the San Francisco “alternative lifestyle”) made laugh out loud more than once. Lisick’s writing is sharp, and her self-deprecating humor overtakes her occasional tendency to make it known just how alterna-cool she is.
One of my favorite essays is towards the end; it’s called “The Lowly Hustle”. She writes about a gig where she dressed as a giant banana and handed out bananas in public to promote a business called Fruit Guys. Here’s an excerpt:
“At that moment, I was merely an outsider lurking on a planter box, dressed entirely in soft, black clothing among the muted tones of the business casual uniforms, looking like a mime gearing up for her greasepaint or perhaps just a stagehand on a smoke break. But when I mentally switched to an aerial view of the setting, I could see the future. In just a few minutes, amid the slow-moving foot traffic and sea of paper bag lunchers, there would be a lone banana, bright yellow and deceptively earnest, weaving through the crowd.”
If you like David Sedaris, I think you’ll probably enjoy Everybody into the Pool. I’m thrilled to see she’s got two other books available, too. Hooray!
Link: Everybody into the Pool: True Tales
Ballpark price: $10.17 on Amazon
Posted: September 21st, 2006 under Books, Personally recommended by Linda.
Comments: 9
Comments
Comment from Kristen
Time: September 22, 2006, 5:42 am
I love David Sedaris, and have always wanted to read something just like that but from a more GIRL point of view. I’ve ordered the book just now, used, from Amazon Marketplace. Thanks for the recommendation!
Comment from Amie
Time: September 22, 2006, 10:44 am
That one’s been on my list for a while. I ended up reading Monkey Girl: Swingin’ Tales by her first, and was kind of disappointed, but I still want to give this one a whirl. (It was unavailable when I got Monkey Girl)
Comment from Caitlin
Time: September 22, 2006, 3:01 pm
Oooh, you should try Hypocrite in a Poufy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless by Susan Gilman. Vicarious NYC boho childhood adventures abound!
Comment from Anonymous
Time: September 23, 2006, 12:00 am
I loved that essay, too–I read it on the plane so all my seatmates could share in my snorts and giggles.
Comment from Gentry
Time: September 23, 2006, 2:08 am
When I lived in SF, I used to know Beth! All her books are that good and her live readings are even better.
Comment from Renmen
Time: September 23, 2006, 11:43 am
I can’t pass this up - a chance to plug 2 of my favorite books! Yeehah. Oh wait, why not three. Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal (http://www.encyclopediaofanordinarylife.com/), The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and Waiting for Birdy by Catherine Newman (you probably know her from bloglandia? i hope?). I work in a (small indepent, for the love of god speak no more about half price chains oh you’re killing me) bookstore so I read, oh, about a gazillion books and I’m way into memoirs right now too. Damn, just thought of another book - A Girl Nammed Zippy by Haven Kimmel. Love your review if EITP. Mine tend to go something like “this book was amazing.” and then I can’t think of anything else to say… gah. Anyways, these four are funny *and* amazing. There you go.
I am loving the buzz site - it’s brilliant.
Comment from Linda
Time: September 23, 2006, 4:04 pm
Also: Half Price Books is a Hated Damn-the-Man Retail Conglomerate? But it feels so…crunchy in there. Well, it’s got to be preferable to the Barnes & Noble next to it, right?
Comment from Renmen
Time: September 24, 2006, 1:24 am
Hey - you know, I just looked up Half Price Books and it looks not evil from their website - I’ve never been to one, but I guess I was thinking it was like our local everything’s cheap bookstore, which is… well… weird and also super corporate. But mostly just weird. It’s located in the local outlet mall, so you can imagine.
Anyhoots, I am happy I was wrong about the HPB! Shop away!
I’m not super obsessed with shopping in independent bookstores or anything, but I like it when people do cause it means I have a job and all that. Details.
Comment from dobhmtlpbk
Time: July 3, 2007, 12:34 pm
Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! ltwilpymulceb
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